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Methods

Methods

Interviews with staff were undertaken with a self-selecting sample following an invitation to all Programme Directors and other stakeholders as identified through a process mapping exercise.

The interviews were based around these two main questions (with associated preamble):

“Thinking about the curriculum / programme design process, (all the way through to the point of approval); and thinking about that in a pre-RoLExcontext; can you just give a quick summary of any roles you have had in facilitating this sort of activity?”

“With reference to your experiences, can you take me through an account of how the curriculum design process – from the decision point to undertake a design process all the way through to the approval event. I’d like to know what that whole workflow is like from your perspective.”

The following supplementary questions were asked to further explore themes if these didn’t emerge spontaneously from the conversation:

Who else gets involved in the design and approval process?

When do you interact with them?

How would you say module design fits into programme design?

What systems – either computer based or people based do you make use of during the curriculum design process?

Who do you think are the stakeholders in the curriculum design process?

What are your thoughts on the documentation that course teams prepare as part of the curriculum design and programme approval process?

Do you have ready access to all of the information you need to undertake the process of curriculum design or to prepare for programme approval?

How well do you think the programme documentation you have taken to approval describes the programme and the rationale behind the design choices that have been made by the course team?

The interview data so generated was seen by two individuals with thematic analysis being conducted directly from the video data and field notes.